Gods had been killed.
Those guardian spirits were only the earliest gods. Their divine power was weak, their consciousness still chaotic, and their magic was attached to the stone tablets. After the tablets were destroyed, they naturally perished.
But Murphy became a new god.
Destroying those stone tablets not only failed to shatter the shamans' faith, but instead, because of the overwhelming power Murphy displayed, gave rise to another kind of belief in them.
As Murphy traveled everywhere, destroying newborn gods wherever he went, a legend gradually spread through the mouths of the shamans: the one true god had descended from the heavens and slain all false gods with divine lightning. From then on, there was only one great being in the world.
So when he returned once more to that original valley, he found that the fields of shattered stone tablets had vanished. In their place stood a statue that bore a striking resemblance to him.
Threads of mental power gathered onto the statue from the shamans and worshipers, and when Murphy approached, they returned from the statue to Murphy himself.
An extremely full, exalted feeling filled his heart. Countless emotions mixed into that mental power—feelings, fear, hope, desire, and more—were like all kinds of seasonings, sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy, all sweeping across his mind, leaving him momentarily dazed.
He felt as if he had truly become a god seated high in the heavens, looking down upon the bustling masses.
Fortunately, he soon understood. These were all impurities within the mental power transmitted by those believers. They were their "definition" of their god in their hearts, their imagination and shaping of a deity.
It took him some effort to suppress the influence of these impurities.
Then he found it both funny and exasperating.
Mental power was another dimension